The Meta Lab is launching a new application, featuring services provided by the accelerator program's challenge winners.
The Meta Lab is a financial-technology and health-tech accelerator that launched here last October. Carolina Fintech Hub partnered with Boston's MassChallenge to bring the program to Charlotte. The new app is a way to promote upward mobility and other opportunities for the community. It offers direct services to individuals or business-to-business capabilities.
With this version, individuals have access to help on bills or financial education. Business owners can access assistance with payments, data analytics and medical references.
Tariq Bokhari, a Charlotte City Council member and executive director at Carolina Fintech Hub, said this program focuses on democratizing accelerator outcomes. MassChallenge identified 99 startups in 21 states and across 13 countries as eligible to participate.
"We were going to focus on building something new, an accelerator that's not for the few, like the accelerators you see around the world — the few ... startups that get selected and are given capital by the few venture-capital partners and then go do deals with the few large entities, and few customers ultimately get to touch it," Bokhari said.
Three institutions — Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC), Atrium Health and Barings — submitted industry-specific problems for the accelerator's participants to tackle. They also crafted shared challenges to help the greater community. The winners may have opportunities to partner with these big market players.
Partnerships like these could boost economic growth, encouraging companies to establish operations here. Business recruitment is an important piece of the program, Bokhari said.
The Meta Lab app is also gathering suggestions for what services users need. Organizers can then tailor the second cohort to meet those needs.
"This is the infancy of this product, and as the next cohort and the one after continue, this will become a true marketplace driven by the needs and demands that the community is looking for," Bokhari said. "I'd love to get to a point where we're doing multiple of these a year."
The six challenge winners are:
- Knoema, a New York-based platform that compiles data for easier and faster analysis (Barings challenge winner)
- inPharmD, an Atlanta-based startup that specializes in medical reference software (Atrium challenge winner)
- ThirdRayAI, a Dallas-based platform that automates extraction, processing and integration with business systems (Truist challenge winner)
- MedZERO, an Oregon-based mobile lending health-care payments platform (shared challenge winner)
- Silver Bills, a New York-based concierge bill manager for families (shared challenge winner)
- Napkin Finance, a Los Angeles-based multimedia company that helps educate individuals on complex topics (shared challenge winner)
